10 things: The Tibetan Plateau
04. Sep, 2009 
11 Comments
Our first review for September takes us to Tibet. At first glance, I was worried that I wouldn’t have many items to critique. Of course if I did reviews based on just my first glance, I wouldn’t get very far. So I clicked around and took some notes. Then I clicked around some more.
So, The Tibetan Plateau, here are 10 things I hate about your blog:
- There is not enough differentiation between posts—they blend into each other.
- Your posts don’t have any dates. Posts should always have a date.
- I love the use of “Read more…”. Unfortunately I hate it when I click on it and I’m not taken to where I left off reading.
- Don’t tease me and have me click on “Read more…” when there is nothing more substantial to read.
- The stark white background of your LABELS widget is harsh and in complete contrast with the rest of the layout.
- Your content is difficult to read because the letter-spacing1 is too close together to make a good distinction between periods and the start of a new sentence (or commas and the next word).
- I hope I’m not criticizing a royal Tibetan color, but I really dislike the background color/overall color scheme.
- Your columns need to be contained—they are just floating sections of text.
- Your special characters aren’t so special on my PC.
- I’m confused by this: “Do not click on this link: Read more on this article…“.
Details
- There is not enough differentiation between posts—they blend into each other. If I squint, and get really close to my monitor, I can see a dividing line between your posts. Add to that the fact that your post titles very closely match your links, and it’s difficult to differentiate between posts.
What does this mean? You need to either make your post titles stand out more, or make the dividing line between posts more visible (or both!).
- Your posts don’t have any dates. Posts should always have a date. Not including a date makes it difficult to determine how recent your content is. You are blogging about very timely subjects—your audience should know when the articles were written.
What does this mean? Simple. Add the date to your posts.2
- I love the use of “Read more…”. Unfortunately I hate it when I click on it and I’m not taken to where I left off reading. This is actually one of my biggest pet peeves—I should have listed it first. Part of the beauty of using the “Read more…” feature is to take the reader to where they left off. Don’t make them scan the first few paragraphs to find their place. It’s equivalent to losing your place in a book.
What does this mean? I don’t want to re-read what I just read. Have the “Read more…” link take me to where I left off.
- Don’t tease me and have me click on “Read more…” when there is nothing more substantial to read. While this was not a problem on most of the posts I read, it reared its ugly head on the first post I read: How Life is for Urbanised Nomads. When I clicked to read more, all I received was a quick sentence leading me somewhere else if I wanted to read more.
What does this mean? Don’t make me work so hard for it—I shouldn’t have to click twice to read more. If you have a short post and some good content relating to the post in other articles, give me the links and lose the “Read more…”.
- The stark white background of your LABELS widget is harsh and in complete contrast with the rest of the layout. I love labels and tags. I like the widget you are using for yours. I don’t like the stark, white background. It’s a little jarring to the eye and doesn’t match your color scheme (nothing else on your blog is white).
What does this mean? Is there a way to change the background color of this widget? If yes, do it! If no, well, check out #7.
- Your content is difficult to read because the letter-spacing3 is too close together to make a good distinction between periods and the start of a new sentence (or commas and the next word). I feel like I’m reading one, long, run-on sentence, and since your blog is an article-driven one, you want it to be as easy to read as possible.
What does this mean? Personally I would change the actual font used. Serif fonts like the one you have chosen, are not best for web readability. A good sans-serif font like Arial or Verdana (with no special letter-spacing) would be a good choice.
- I hope I’m not criticizing a royal Tibetan color, but I really dislike the background color/overall color scheme. This color scheme is very drab.4 I don’t know if it was chosen for a special reason to do with Tibet, but even if it was, it doesn’t work.
What does this mean? I’m not suggesting bright, primary colors. I am suggesting a color scheme more dynamic than what you are currently using. If you need some color ideas, check out the color section on my Resources page.
- Your columns need to be contained—they are just floating sections of text. Sometimes this floating thing works. Most of the time it doesn’t. It might just be a personal preference, but I like my columns, sections, containers, etc., to be contained by something.
What does this mean? Maybe simply changing the color scheme and providing more differentiation between posts will help this problem. Maybe it’s not really a problem at all and I’m just being nit-picky.
- Your special characters aren’t so special on my PC. I’m sure you didn’t mean to have a bunch of སསསས in the middle of your posts and in your FAVORITE LINKS section, but that’s exactly what is happening when I view your blog in IE7 and Chrome 2.0 on my PC.
IE7 and Chrome
This problem does not appear in Firefox on my PC, nor in Firefox and Safari on my Mac. Unfortunately, there are a gazillion people out there using IE on a PC—I’m guessing I’m not the only person having this problem.
What does this mean? I don’t have an easy answer for this one. I’m not an expert on coding special characters for foreign languages. I would recommend finding a solution, however since Internet Explorer is not going away any time soon.
- I’m confused by this: “Do not click on this link: Read more on this article…“. I’m guessing you are having trouble with the “Read more…” on Blogger which has prompted you to resort to “Do not click on this link.” Alas, human nature will ALWAYS get the better of us, and I bet that everyone who has read that post has clicked on that link!
What does this mean? Configure the “Read more…” feature correctly. This feature should a) take the reader where they left off, and b) only be used on long posts. If you’re looking for a Blogger hack, do a Google search—that’s what I did. I found the article Blogger Read More Post Summaries Fix. I didn’t test this in any of my Blogger sites, but I like what the author said:
And when you don’t want a post to have a “Read more” link, simply don’t put the fullpost span in the post body.
The Good
Even though I had 10 things I hated, this is a very good blog. The author definitely knows the subject matter and writes eloquently. Tashi obviously uses spell check too! While this is not a topic I would normally be interested in, I found myself reading more articles than necessary to complete this review. Tashi’s writing is interesting, well researched, and complimented by just the right amount of relevant graphics. All this blog really needs is a better color scheme and an improvement on the use of “Read more…”.
Add your 2-cents worth below…I know you want to. Be sure to include any information you might have that would help Tashi with the IE/special characters problem.
- Letter-spacing is a CSS property where the space between text characters can be changed. [↩]
- Adding the date may mean either tinkering with the theme layout, or changing a setting in Blogger. [↩]
- Letter-spacing is a CSS property where the space between text characters can be changed. [↩]
- Drab, aka, boring. [↩]
Looks like he already started changing the site based on your suggestions. You now have a blue background, but i strongly feel that you need some type of differentiation between your sidebar and your main content. Some type of border, or even better, a different (but subtle) background color for the sidebar. It will help to separate those two areas.
Those tag clouds to me are a little ridiculous.. especially when it doesnt fit in your sidebar. Its cutoff which makes it look wrong, or half-assed
I dont know if this can not be changed on blogger, but i dont like the font choice. Its too “blogger” for me. I see that font, size, and weight, and i instantly know its blogger
LINDSAY´s last blog ..Adobe adds functionality beyond your harddrive
Thanks for providing good feedback on this and other reviews Lindsay.
Thanks for the review. I made some changes (fonts to Arial, added dates, color, etc) but it still needs a lot of work. I am afraid my color may have gotten worse — I got no sense of colors. BTW, the last background color is random, I think it came with the template. haha. Thanks again.
Tashi´s last blog .."How life is for ‘The urbanised nomads’ "
While I’m not crazy about the current color either, it is an improvement over the original color. For what it’s worth, my husband gave his 2-cents and also said the new color was much better and the articles are much easier to read now. Since that is his priority over design (gasp) that’s a pretty good review.
I know you can change the background color, even when using a theme. If you want to change it to something different, I’d be happy to help. If this color is good for you, it is still a definite improvement, as is the font change and the post title color. There’s much better differentiation between your articles now.
Color is really hard for people who arent into design. Your content is great.. but you arent one of those designers who knows color.. BUT ITS OK!
If you have adobe illustrator, there is an AWESOME tool that, when you pick a color, it will give you a choice of a bunch of color palletes based on the feel you are going for (warm, cool, clean, etc)
If you dont have illustrator, check out this website, it can REALLY help with picking colors.. it will give you a list of the newest color trends and the matching colors it goes with
Colour Lovers
Its fun to play with colors, but also frustrating..
i think that the other issue maybe is your header graphic. Its a photograph, with LOTS of color inside of it and NO design quality.. Its not BAD.. but its hard to have a header graphic and try and make a site design match.
My suggestion would be to use a WHITE background.. then put a color border, or something like that.. or maybe a dull color background for just the content, and a matching dull color background for the sidebar content.. Is that somethign you can do with blogger?? I dont know.
LINDSAY´s last blog ..Adobe adds functionality beyond your harddrive
oops.. I wanted to post this pallet. I think it would look nice.
Oriental Connections Pallet Use a white MAIN background, and those pale colors inside.
Or if thats too girly, something like this
viva la france With this one I would use white background everywhere, dark colored border, and maybe orange highlights like links and such.. or maybe the sidebar headers (like the titles for each widget)
LINDSAY´s last blog ..Adobe adds functionality beyond your harddrive
Hello Web-Betty and Lindsay,
You guys are awesome. It’s great to get feedback and helpful suggestions. Thanks you two, and to Betty’s husband for the kind words. I chose the green for environment theme because that’s the only one I could think of. I don’t know which colors are hot, cold, warm or dry. My blank and surprised reaction to Lindsay’s suggested pallets confirm that I really have no sense in colors.
Betty: yes, I could use some help with colors.
Tashi´s last blog .."How life is for ‘The urbanised nomads’ "
Lindsay: I changed the background color for the sidebar and took off the tag clouds (with a heavy heart).
Tashi´s last blog .."How life is for ‘The urbanised nomads’ "
I love how proactive you are being, making the changes and accepting, even welcoming and acknowledging, the fabulous feedback and suggestions offered so far.
A possible way to get around the special characters issue (no. 9), particularly when it’s necessary to use uniquely formed characters is to use an image instead of text. There are disadvantages of this alternative (such as inability to copy and paste) also which is why it is best to use standard fonts and text when possible but it could be one way to work around a character display problem.
When it comes to color and theme design if I were designing this site for a client I’d go with:
-: a pale blue site background
-: soft sandy color content background
-: darker sandy color for the sidebar background
-: padding either side of text in both content and sidebar
-: probably use rounded corners but that’s personal preference
-: black or very dark brown for the text of the main content
-: sidebar background color for headings in the main content
-: content background color for the text in the sidebar
-: site background’s sky blue for links (a few shades darker for hover).
To get the RIGHT colors for this, use a color picker and grab them directly from your header image.
Also, you might want to remove the border around images. There is a white box around the email post and edit post buttons on every post.
Speaking of which, I know the site is undergoing overhaul at the moment but thought it was weird to see little ‘edit’ icons all over your site. I’m not sure if this is a Blogger issue (I generally work with Wordpress) but you might want to be aware that non-admin are seeing these buttons.
Rebecca Laffar-Smith – Web Designer´s last blog ..Are You Going On Blog Tour?
Couldn’t take the sidebar changes too long. Reverted to the old sidebar.
Thanks Rebecca, I will try to incorporate your suggestions after things settle down a bit here. I am in the midst of exams and travel plans right now. I think your suggestions are all great!
Tashi´s last blog .."How life is for ‘The urbanised nomads’ "